Time to start paying attention to that ODI series

I have not paid much attention to the England-Australia ODI series - thus far. The World Cup has seen to that. Yes, cricket, my lovely, even you (in your here's-another-pointless-ODI-series form) can't compete with the world's premier sporting event. But ironically, now that the score is 3-0 England, I've suddenly become fascinated by it in that "I'm going to a NASCAR rally so I can see a crash" sense. For one thing, there is the chance that I will get to witness an extremely entertaining feeding frenzy in the Australian and English presses if this margin of victory were to be enlarged. But even more entertainingly, Ricky Ponting might wax poetic, both at postmatch interviews and in his own writings (if things are going really well, perhaps we can count on an on-field implosion in full sight of the cameras). The Punter is always good in these situations (defeat, that is); the perfect turn-of-phrase and the pitch-perfect facial expression.

Even if bat on ball hasn't quite done it for me in the last few weeks, the associated entertainments of the game always hold some promise. Especially when England seem to be lording it over Australia.